Nine

Directed by Rob Marshall

2009

Date Viewed: Monday May 31, 2010

Dear Rob Marshall,

            Be more creative. Just because Chicago was such a hit for you does not mean that we want to see Chicago in Italy. Having Penelope Cruz, Fergie, Marion Cotillard etc. writhe around in their underwear  does not make an entertaining movie. Better Luck next time. -Megan

                                                 

Moon

"You look like a radioactive tampon"

Directed by Duncan Jones

2009

Date Viewed: Sunday May 30, 2010

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) has a 3 year contract for Lunar Industries to live alone on a lunar base and do something that has to do with harvesting clean energy. His only companion is GERTY, a robot with an emoticon for a face. His contract is coming to an end and Sam is very eager to return home to his wife and young daughter. Then things get a little crazy.... And I can't reveal the crazy.... I really enjoyed this movie. Sam Rockwell did an AWESOME job considering he had to carry the entire movie himself and had to be entertaining while talking to himself and doing everyday tasks. It did get a little bit long in the middle, but then it picked up and got really interesting again to the end. Its hard to write a review without giving away key plot points and since I HATE when reviews ruin the movie I will just leave you with this: This movie is great. Watch it. B+

The Taking of Pelham 123

Directed by Tony Scott

2009

Date Viewed: Monday May 17, 2010 (second viewing)

I never intended to see this movie twice... But my dad wanted to watch a movie that was action/adventurey and this was on Netflix streaming.... Basically John Travolta plays a BAMF who hijacks a subway train and Denzel works for the subway system and ends up playing negotiator. The style is SO Tony Scott, it looks EXACTLY like every one of his other movies (which was cool the first 10 times, but now is getting old. Change it up man). John Travolta, who's characters name is Ryder (told you he was a BAMF), yells and swears a LOT and waves around a gun. He's also WAAAAAAYYYY over the top, which could've worked if the movie didn't take itself so incredibly seriously. So anyways, Ryder makes this ten million dollar demand in exchange for hostages. So they're racing through New York trying to get this money to this guy and meanwhile they're driving so fast and recklessly to meet the dead line that they get into a few car accidents on the way. Looked like just an excuse to have cars careening out of control and flipping over. A lame excuse at that... In the end Denzel saves the day... As always... D+

Chariots of Fire

" I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure."

Directed by Hugh Hudson

1981

Date Viewed: Sunday May 16, 2010

This movie was so boring!!!!!!!!! There was one really exciting race where Eric Liddell fell (or was pushed?) and then got up and ran as fast as he could. But other than that this movie was so slow. My mom pointed out that it took her more than one viewing to really catch everything that was going on and to really enjoy it. So maybe that's what I need too. But I'm not going to watch it again for a very long time. I decided not to grade it because if I give this movie a bad grade people will kill me! And I realize that it's probably a very good movie, I just didn't pay very good attention...

Sherlock Holmes

"The game's afoot"

Directed by Guy Ritchie

2009

Date Viewed: Saturday May 15, 2010

I had put off seeing this movie because it had gotten such lousy reviews. Too bad this movie is freaking awesome! Robert Downey Jr. is definitely becoming one of my faves. I love how he delivers his lines in this crazy/smart/witty way.I can't decide if I've ever really been a fan of Jude Law or not. I could pretty much take him or leave him, but I loved him in this movie. Whoever decided to pair the two of them was a genius, they had such awesome chemistry. This movie has a very Guy Ritchie feel to it such as the way that Sherlock would deconstruct a fight before it happened and he would go through every move in slow motion and then the fight would happen in regular or sometimes fast motion. It was just so Guy Ritchie and I loved it. The best scene I think was when a huge bomb goes off on a wharf and you see everything that's happening in slow motion and you follow the characters involved through the whole explosion. It was just so ingenious. If they make sequels (and they left it WIDE open for some) I hope that they are pulled off as well as this one. A

Plan 9 From Outer Space

"Now, don't you worry. The saucers are up there. The graveyard is out there. But I'll be locked up safely in there" 

Directed by Ed Wood Jr.

1959

Date Viewed: Thursday May 13, 2010

This movie is well known for being horrible and it definitely lives up to its reputation. It is awesomely horrible. There are so many continuity issues and incredibly awful dialogue (such as "Visits? That would indicate visitors" and "But one thing's sure. Inspector Clay is dead, murdered, and somebody's responsible") and the acting is poor at best, but there's something so endearing about it all. I mean its a classic B movie (or maybe D-) so you know its gonna be bad so it's all good. So what is this movie about? Basically aliens come to Earth and use electrodes to wake the newly dead. The dead wander around all zombified (and one vampire?) and when the aliens shut off the electrodes then they just stand there. And when they're killed (which I don't remember how that even happened) they turn to skeletons. So not the greatest plot, but hey, whatever works I guess. I love love LOVE movies that are laughably horrible, but only the good ones (does that even make sense?) so while in any normal world this movie would probably get an F, I would say that this movie goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to horribleness. If Ed Wood had planned for this movie to be bad, it probably wouldn't have turned out half as great. So I give it a definite B

Con Air

"Define irony. Bunch of idiots dancing on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash."

Directed by Simon West

 1997

Date Viewed: Sunday May 9, 2010

I do not know what possessed me to watch this movie. It was HORRIBLE. Probably one of the worst I've ever seen. Nic Cage is getting paroled and ends up on a plane with other cons who take over. First of all, supposedly these other guys are the world's worst criminals, so what ever would possess someone to put them ALL on the same plane together? They're all being transported to some new fancy ultra maximum security prison that will hold the worst of the worst, so lets put them all on a plane together with just a few prison guards... hmmm seems like a winning idea to me... not. So anyways, 2 hours, a few explosions and some insanely bad dialogue later, Nic Cage saves the day! F

Been Busy... But....

So I've been really busy so I haven't been watching as many movies. I have, however, been watching some great tv! I love LOVE that Glee pulled off Vanilla Ice AND MC Hammer this week! So awesome! I've also been watching and enjoying season 1 of The Closer (Kyra Sedgwick is hilarious!), From The Earth to the Moon (an HBO mini series about the space race. SO good! definitely check it out!), season 1 of Party Down (starts out slow, but gets really funny!) and CSI season 6 (only ok, not my favorite season) What have you been enjoying lately?

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

"There's two kinds of people in this world when you boil it all down. You got your talkers and you got your doers. Most people are just talkers, all they do is talk, but when it is all said and done, it's the doers that change this world. And when they do that, they change us, and that's why we never forget them. So which one are you? do you just talk about it, or do you stand up and do something about it?

Directed by Troy Duffy

2009

Date Viewed: Sunday April 25, 2010 (second viewing)

This movie turned out to be very uncomfortable to watch with my pastor dad..... Ha ha.. I forgot how bad the language is. My younger bro told me that the language even started to bother him so I know I'm not alone when I say that sometimes swearing just gets to be way too much. This is the second time we see the McManus brothers (Sean Patrick Flannery and Norman Reedus) as they go on a vigilante killing spree to take out some major Russian Mafia players who killed a priest. This movie largely follows the same formula as the first one where you see them about to go kill some folks and then it cuts to the police at the crime scene who look at the evidence and then tell the story of what happened inter cut with scenes of the Bros doing the killing. The upside is that this movie does not take itself seriously at all, which is good because if it had it would've been totally ridiculous. There are also a lot of winks to the first movie which makes it seem like an inside joke that much more and basically if you didn't like or haven't seen the first one, then you'll probably hate this one. I loved Julie Benz as Detective Eunice Bloom. She just looked like she was having so much fun making this movie (and if you haven't watched the show Dexter, you should because she's awesome in that too... Plus its just an awesome show). The same goes for Clifton Collins Jr. who played the Bro's new sidekick, Romeo. I love when you watch a ridiculous movie but the actors just seem like they're having a great time. I just read a review on Amazon and it said that the first Boondock Saints movie "was not a good movie, but it had a weird, unique energy" and I think that that's very true of this one too. It's not a very good movie but there's something about it that is just very endearing. It's weird. It's really hard to decide on a grade for this one because it doesn't seem like it should be good enough for a B, but it seems like a C would be harsh so I will put it in the C+ to B- range.